‘Party Gras’: USU’s way of celebrating purple, gold and green

A $5 ticket got you in the door, but what really set the tone for Utah State University’s Mardi Gras celebration on Feb. 4 were the traditional beads, jazz music and festive energy.

Other than beads, students were given the opportunity to pet reptiles, snap a pic at one of the photo backdrops, bust a move on the dance floor, lose to the dealer in blackjack or interact with any of the entertainers, including a hypnotist and aerialist.

The beloved tradition started as a simple casino night and evolved in the late 90s into the purple, gold and green party we know and love it to be now.

However, technically, USU is a little early to the party because the real Mardi Gras in New Orleans isn’t until March 1.

The celebration actually starts on Jan. 6, on a Christian holiday known as Epiphany or Three Kings Day, and goes until Fat Tuesday — the English translation for Mardi Gras. This nearly month-long timeframe is referred to as Carnival.

And much like USU’s event, the date of Mardi Gras changes every year. The cultural reasoning behind it is to always keep it for the day before Ash Wednesday and exactly 47 days before Easter.

Another common misconception about this holiday is its origins don’t actually belong to Louisiana. The roots actually come from France when a French explorer, Pierre Le Moyne, camped 60 miles from what would eventually be New Orleans in 1699.

According to History.com, once Le Moyne landed in North America and knowing it was Fat Tuesday back in France, he decided to hold a small gala to celebrate. Years later, French soldiers who had also settled there wore masks and feasted in what we now know as Alabama.

Even today Alabama claims to have the oldest annual celebration in the U.S., however, New Orleans remains with the credit.

But don’t be fooled into thinking

The organizers of the event wanted to make sure the event also educated students on the Louisiana traditions and said they did their best to make everything as authentic as possible.

And their efforts started even before the big bash.

“Throughout the month, we’ve been doing this thing called Zulu coconut giveaways,” Fetzer said. “In the parade when a float gives out these coconuts, it’s like a really prized possession.”

But their desire for the event to mirror the real deal didn’t stop there. And luckily, the activities committee had a secret weapon in their back pocket — Bella Gardner.

Gardner is a member of the activities committee and is actually from New Orleans. Her knowledge of the customs of this holiday was a huge factor in successfully bringing the correct traditions of other cultures to students.

“I’m from New Orleans, I did my best to put everything I know about Mardi Gras into the event, so it’s pretty authentic if I do say so myself,” Gardner said.

Other traditional Mardi Gras customs from Gardner’s hometown include throwing beads, eating king cake and blazing torches.

Another article from History explains the idea of throwing beads is to toss them to people during the parade who have good, strong traits and will receive good luck for the next year. The saying “the more the merrier” definitely applies to collecting beads.

King cake, which is exclusive to Mardi Gras and only available during the holiday’s season, is coated with cinnamon and icing and has a plastic baby hidden inside. Whoever finds the baby in their slice of the dessert is supposed to buy the next cake.

Last but not least, the blazing torches — also known as flambeaux — light the path during the nighttime activities. Flambeaux is French for torch and, during mid-19th century celebrations, the fire was necessary because they didn’t have street lighting.

USU didn’t have burning flames or cultural desserts at their event but, much like the real Mardi Gras, students were able to go home with as many purple, gold and green beads as they pleased.

And because the event’s planning committee included Gardner, who has attended Mardi Gras multiple times, they explained they were able to successfully execute other realistic details.

One of those details includes decorations.

“I worked a lot with decorations because that’s what I’m passionate about. I feel like decorations in New Orleans are always so popular. I feel like we did really good,” Gardner said.

As for the colors, even those have special meaning. Purple symbolizes justice, green symbolizes faith and gold symbolizes power.

Mardi Gras History said the colors were tied into the holiday in 1872 when a group of businessmen decided to honor the visiting Russian Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff who was visiting and introduced Romanoff’s family colors of purple, gold and green as the occasion’s official colors.

Another consideration is attire. Gardner explained that typically people will dress up in costumes and wear masks, or at the very least not be caught wearing anything that isn’t purple, gold or green.

USU students clearly didn’t get that memo.

Some took the formal cocktail-look approach because blackjack was on their agenda for the night. Others decided to wear shorts and a t-shirt knowing they would get sweaty in the mosh pit while dancing. Fetzer came up with his own theme by rocking a zebra print jacket.

The majority of attendees chose to just go casual thinking that they’d save themselves the embarrassment if no one else had decided to dress up. And for the very few that did attempt to be festive wore hats or boas. But I guess it’s the thought that counts — right?

In their defense, the graphic that advertised the event didn’t state a specific dress code and Fetzer said any attire would be welcomed.

And even with all of this history within one Google search and Gardner’s best efforts to bring New Orleans alive, some students still didn’t get the point of it all.

Tylen Nelson said he just came to the event for a good-time with his friends without even thinking about the ways USU was incorporating culture.

“I know it’s a New Orleans thing, just like a big party and parade. I’ve only seen snippets of it in movies, I don’t really know what it’s all about.”

But Nelson isn’t the only one.

One student even drove 12 hours from Arizona just for the event, but obviously coming for the party, he couldn’t give an answer as to what Mardi Gras is.

Though authenticity was a huge priority for the planning committee, it wasn’t the only factor. A casino night isn’t exactly a part of typical Mardi Gras festivities.

“We obviously were thinking about what we thought the students would like but also keeping it tried to what an actual Mardi Gras looks like,”  Gardner said.

And ultimately, they must’ve done something right because Fetzer said the overall attendance was more than they’ve seen in years with only 250 tickets unsold and close to 2,500 students showing up.

Gardner, the New Orleans native, was pleased with the turn out and said they accomplished all of their goals.

She said, “We did our best to bring New Orleans to Logan.”